Palm Coast woman recounts escape from fiery plane crash, and life since

"When you come that close to losing a loved one, you want to hold on as tight as possible," says Jessica Crockett, hugging her mother, Susan, who escaped without serious injury when a plane crashed into her Palm Coast home Jan. 4.

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In an interview Friday, Crockett recounted the moments before a small plane laden with fuel punched a ragged hole through the roof of her house. As the plane fell out of the sky, Crockett was in a bedroom on the phone talking to one of her three daughters.

"I was actually leaving the bedroom and as I was on the phone with my daughter Jasmine and walking out the door . . . the Holy Spirit said, you know, 'Stop, look at these shoes' " Crockett said. "And there were a pair of shoes, you know, just there on the floor . . . I looked at the shoes and I'm like 'Yeah, OK, whatever' and I headed to the door again and it was like 'No, look at the shoes.' And when I looked again, the plane just hit, nose-dived. It was like, boom! I mean, the loudest explosion that I have ever heard in my entire life."

Suddenly facing fire and destruction, Crockett escaped out a back window. She injured her knee climbing out the window, but the scab remains as the only physical injury from the terrifying crash on Jan. 4 that killed the three people aboard the plane.

Crockett's nerves are another matter. Loud or unexpected noises -- an elevator bell or something falling to the floor -- can set her on edge.

"Loud noises. I was in the store and somebody dropped something, I almost jumped out of my skin, like, just a little nervous," she said. "Everybody keeps telling me that will fade away . . . just a little jumpy," Crockett said. "On the elevator, it binged when it got to the third floor and I was, like, ready to go out the door."

Crockett recounted the crash during an at-times tearful interview Friday in the office of her attorney, Marc Dwyer of Chiumento Selis Dwyer in Palm Coast.

Crockett, 50, said she doesn't know whether she wants to rebuild her home at 22 Utica Path in Palm Coast.

"At this point, I'm just very nervous and scared," Crockett said. "I was over there yesterday and a plane flew by and I almost hit the deck. Just very jumpy. Never was before, you know. It was normal to hear the planes go by. Now, I'm not quite sure if I would want to move back there."

Crockett is living in a hotel for now.

"Without using the term 'homeless,' that's literally what we have here," Dwyer said.

It will take months, if not much longer, before things can return to normal for Susan Crockett and "there are going to be some rough roads ahead," Dwyer said.

While the house was insured, there are still numerous questions about coverage, Dwyer said.

"Anytime you are dealing with insurance companies and it comes time for them to pay monies, there's always numerous questions," Dwyer said. "There's always the fine print."

Dwyer, as did Crockett, thanked the community for their support and prayers.

"And, obviously, as a person of faith, I want to ask everyone to pray for those that lost their lives as well, because again it is a tragedy," Dwyer said. "It doesn't just affect this community."

Killed in the crash were the pilot, Michael Anders, a high school teacher from Albany, Ky., who had turned 58 on the day of the crash; and two passengers, one of Anders' neighbors, Duane Shaw, 59, and Shaw's fiancée, Charissee Peoples, 42, of Indianapolis.

Crockett lost nearly everything to the plane's blunt force, the fire and the water — clothing, family pictures, the dress she was going to wear on Jan. 26 to the wedding of her oldest daughter, 27-year-old Jasmine. Only a few things from the garage were salvageable.

"We tried to get some of the clothing but, uh, there's just, there's just, everything is gone. There's nothing. Everything is gone."

Crockett's eyes reddened and tears formed as she thought about pictures of her parents and siblings, a family of seven siblings in all. Only she and her brother remain, she said.

"I did get a picture that was in the garage. One of my sisters and her family. I was able to recover that. But a lot of pictures, things that can never be replaced ... " she said as her voice trailed off.

When the plane hit, Crockett reacted quickly.

"From then it was, like, just reaction," Crockett said. "I went to the window, opened the window. There was a ring of fire back there. So I went back to the door. Open the door and that's when the smoke came in, the flames were coming, you know, toward me. I slammed the door. Went back to the window and I just went through the screen. And just got out. It was, like, automatic. Move, move, move, just get out, just get out and that's it."

The tragedy has united the family, which also includes daughters Jocelyn, 18, and Jessica, 20. Jessica Crockett, who held her mother's arm during Friday's interview and held it tighter when her mother eye's welled with tears, attested to that.

"I think it's definitely brought us closer together," said Jessica Crockett. "When you come that close to losing a loved one, you want to hold on as tight as possible. You know what you could be doing and what could be going on right now and the fact that you've been almost given a second chance.

"You don't want to take that for granted," she said. "You don't want to take anything like that for granted. So I believed we've always been close. We've always been a close-knit family, but now we are definitely closer."

The Sunday after the crash, Jan. 6, Susan Crockett was at her church, Mount Calvary Baptist Church of Palm Coast. Susan Crockett is director of the youth ministry, teaches a preschool Sunday class and is a member of all the choirs, said Carol Coffie, the first lady of the church. Everyone was worried about her, Coffie said.

"She came ready to render service as she normally does," Coffie said.

Susan Crockett has been so shaken up that she has yet to return to her job at the Redlands Christian Migrant Association, a statewide organization that manages Head Start programs.

She expressed gratitude to all who have helped.

"I d like to thank everyone that has helped so far," she said. "The churches really rallied. All I had was the clothes on my back. ... I didn't have to worry about that. They came with pajamas, change of clothes, undergarments, I mean everything that you could possibly think that you would need."

How to help

The Susan Crockett Relief Trust Fund has been set up to help Susan Crockett at Intracoastal Bank, 1290 Palm Coast Parkway N.W., 32137, 386-447-1662.

<p>PALM COAST -- It's said God works in mysterious ways. For Susan Crockett, a woman of great faith, he was working through a pair of shoes as a plane plummeted toward her house in Palm Coast. </p><p>In an interview Friday, Crockett recounted the moments before a small plane laden with fuel punched a ragged hole through the roof of her house. As the plane fell out of the sky, Crockett was in a bedroom on the phone talking to one of her three daughters.</p><p>"I was actually leaving the bedroom and as I was on the phone with my daughter Jasmine and walking out the door . . . the Holy Spirit said, you know, 'Stop, look at these shoes' " Crockett said. "And there were a pair of shoes, you know, just there on the floor . . . I looked at the shoes and I'm like 'Yeah, OK, whatever' and I headed to the door again and it was like 'No, look at the shoes.' And when I looked again, the plane just hit, nose-dived. It was like, boom! I mean, the loudest explosion that I have ever heard in my entire life."</p><p>Suddenly facing fire and destruction, Crockett escaped out a back window. She injured her knee climbing out the window, but the scab remains as the only physical injury from the terrifying crash on Jan. 4 that killed the three people aboard the plane.</p><p>Crockett's nerves are another matter. Loud or unexpected noises -- an elevator bell or something falling to the floor -- can set her on edge.</p><p>"Loud noises. I was in the store and somebody dropped something, I almost jumped out of my skin, like, just a little nervous," she said. "Everybody keeps telling me that will fade away . . . just a little jumpy," Crockett said. "On the elevator, it binged when it got to the third floor and I was, like, ready to go out the door." </p><p>Crockett recounted the crash during an at-times tearful interview Friday in the office of her attorney, Marc Dwyer of Chiumento Selis Dwyer in Palm Coast. </p><p>Crockett, 50, said she doesn't know whether she wants to rebuild her home at 22 Utica Path in Palm Coast. </p><p>"At this point, I'm just very nervous and scared," Crockett said. "I was over there yesterday and a plane flew by and I almost hit the deck. Just very jumpy. Never was before, you know. It was normal to hear the planes go by. Now, I'm not quite sure if I would want to move back there." </p><p>Crockett is living in a hotel for now. </p><p>"Without using the term 'homeless,' that's literally what we have here," Dwyer said.</p><p>It will take months, if not much longer, before things can return to normal for Susan Crockett and "there are going to be some rough roads ahead," Dwyer said. </p><p>While the house was insured, there are still numerous questions about coverage, Dwyer said. </p><p>"Anytime you are dealing with insurance companies and it comes time for them to pay monies, there's always numerous questions," Dwyer said. "There's always the fine print." </p><p>Dwyer, as did Crockett, thanked the community for their support and prayers. </p><p>"And, obviously, as a person of faith, I want to ask everyone to pray for those that lost their lives as well, because again it is a tragedy," Dwyer said. "It doesn't just affect this community." </p><p>Killed in the crash were the pilot, Michael Anders, a high school teacher from Albany, Ky., who had turned 58 on the day of the crash; and two passengers, one of Anders' neighbors, Duane Shaw, 59, and Shaw's fiancée, Charissee Peoples, 42, of Indianapolis. </p><p>Crockett lost nearly everything to the plane's blunt force, the fire and the water &mdash; clothing, family pictures, the dress she was going to wear on Jan. 26 to the wedding of her oldest daughter, 27-year-old Jasmine. Only a few things from the garage were salvageable. </p><p>"We tried to get some of the clothing but, uh, there's just, there's just, everything is gone. There's nothing. Everything is gone." </p><p>Crockett's eyes reddened and tears formed as she thought about pictures of her parents and siblings, a family of seven siblings in all. Only she and her brother remain, she said.</p><p>"I did get a picture that was in the garage. One of my sisters and her family. I was able to recover that. But a lot of pictures, things that can never be replaced ... " she said as her voice trailed off. </p><p>When the plane hit, Crockett reacted quickly.</p><p>"From then it was, like, just reaction," Crockett said. "I went to the window, opened the window. There was a ring of fire back there. So I went back to the door. Open the door and that's when the smoke came in, the flames were coming, you know, toward me. I slammed the door. Went back to the window and I just went through the screen. And just got out. It was, like, automatic. Move, move, move, just get out, just get out and that's it."</p><p>The tragedy has united the family, which also includes daughters Jocelyn, 18, and Jessica, 20. Jessica Crockett, who held her mother's arm during Friday's interview and held it tighter when her mother eye's welled with tears, attested to that. </p><p>"I think it's definitely brought us closer together," said Jessica Crockett. "When you come that close to losing a loved one, you want to hold on as tight as possible. You know what you could be doing and what could be going on right now and the fact that you've been almost given a second chance. </p><p>"You don't want to take that for granted," she said. "You don't want to take anything like that for granted. So I believed we've always been close. We've always been a close-knit family, but now we are definitely closer." </p><p>The Sunday after the crash, Jan. 6, Susan Crockett was at her church, Mount Calvary Baptist Church of Palm Coast. Susan Crockett is director of the youth ministry, teaches a preschool Sunday class and is a member of all the choirs, said Carol Coffie, the first lady of the church. Everyone was worried about her, Coffie said. </p><p>"She came ready to render service as she normally does," Coffie said.</p><p>Susan Crockett has been so shaken up that she has yet to return to her job at the Redlands Christian Migrant Association, a statewide organization that manages Head Start programs.</p><p>She expressed gratitude to all who have helped.</p><p>"I d like to thank everyone that has helped so far," she said. "The churches really rallied. All I had was the clothes on my back. ... I didn't have to worry about that. They came with pajamas, change of clothes, undergarments, I mean everything that you could possibly think that you would need." </p><p></p><p> </p><p><b>How to help</b></p><p>The Susan Crockett Relief Trust Fund has been set up to help Susan Crockett at Intracoastal Bank, 1290 Palm Coast Parkway N.W., 32137, 386-447-1662.</p>